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My New Year’s resolution is to provide better picks. I don’t expect them to pan out, just like some of my resolutions of years past, such as:

–lose weight

–exercise more

–write more

–complain less

–be a better husband/father/son/friend/professional

In the end, I’ve wound up being the same person year after year despite the empty promises I’ve made to myself. I expect the promise about better picks against the spread to also be an empty one. Without further ado…

My advice would be to see who I’ve picked, and go with the opposite team. I haven’t been on the money in a while, and I certainly wouldn’t want anyone out there losing cash they probably need to use on presents this holiday season. Without further ado, here are my selections for this week.

As Mark McGwire deftly said to Congress a few years back…I’m not here to talk about the past. Referring to last week and my horrendous picks as “the past,” I have moved on. I’ll post the rest of the weekend’s game tonight or tomorrow. As for now, here’s the pick for tonight’s game.

Jacksonville (+3) over Indianapolis

The Colts have won 22 straight regular season games, are 13-0 this season, and have clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. What, exactly, do they have to play for? Sure the starters will play in this game, but finishing 16-0 isn’t a stated goal of the organization. The Colts aim to win the Super Bowl. If players get nicked up during this game, the Colts won’t risk blowing their shot at a title just to have them return in this game to help preserve an undefeated season.

With that in mind, the Jaguars are the pick here. Jacksonville is in a tight race for a wildcard berth. They’re at home, their stadium is sold out for the first time this season, and they should be hungry and motivated to earn a win tonight to strengthen their chances to reach the playoffs.

There are many storylines to follow as the season winds down. Will the Saints and Colts both finish undefeated? Can the Steelers overcome their recent losing streak, catch a few breaks, and reach the playoffs? Will Chris Johnson reach the 2,000-yard plateau? Who will emerge as the league’s MVP in what promises to be a tight race?

If you’re a faithful reader you already know this, but all picks are for entertainment purposes only. As evidenced by my run of losing weeks lately, if you’re betting with me, you’re not going to do well financially.

Hoping to mitigate the damage caused by the Steelers’ loss to the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night, here’s the remainder of my week 14 picks against the spread:

As the season winds down, unpredictability seems to be on the rise in the NFL.

As a result, it was another losing week for me, as the picks were 7-9 against the spread, bringing my overall record to 104-88 on the season. While the record is still far above .500, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve had 10 or more correct picks.

What follows is a review of the week 13 games, along with my pick for the Thursday night game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns.

This week, the Ledger will focus solely on the Sunday and Monday games. As published earlier, I went 2-1 on Thanksgiving, and there’s no sense in re-hashing the events of games that are nearly a week-old at this point.

As it turned out, the best part of the long weekend was Thursday, both from a food and a football standpoint. The highlight of my week was watching the Broncos dismantle the New York Giants while eating some apple pie. In terms of picks, it was all downhill from there. Between Sunday and Monday night, I went 4-9, running my season record to 97-79.

While I like the symmetry of the overall record, I don’t like posting an ugly week with the selections. Here’s the rundown of where I (mostly) went wrong:

Off to a solid 2-1 start for week 12, thanks to the Packers and Broncos, I’m hoping to see that success continue into the rest of the weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve scored a big week I must admit. Following an 8-8 week 11 showing, and the 2-1 start to this week, my record on the season is now 93-70, which isn’t bad. However, after starting off hot, I’ve essentially been a 50-50 bettor in the last month or so.

For those who might be interested, here’s my picks for Thursday’s games:

It’s been a crazy week for me. The time needed to write 4,000 words a week on football didn’t exist, unfortunately. I hope to make it up in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, with the three games on Turkey Day.

After going 9-6 in week 10, I picked incorrectly on Thursday, as seen here: